How to use spate in a sentence

17 example sentences · noun, verb

Spate means a (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation. Example: “Some connect the recent spate of flying saucer sightings with a rumored top-secret military aviation project.”

Examples of spate by meaning

nounA (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to...

The glacial drip was already in evidence, and every creek in roaring spate.1902 October, Jack London, chapter XXIII, in A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC...
At the edge of the burn, where the path turns downward, there is a patch of shingle washed up by some spate.1910, John Buchan, “The Man on the Kirkcaple Shore”, in Prester John, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, →OCLC, page 86
After a rainstorm on July 29, 1966, the Shihtouyu River in Lonan County was in full spate.1968 March 15, “Liang Chen-yu, a Good Cadre Reared on Mao Tse-tung's Thought”, in Peking Review, number 11, →OCLC, archived from the...

nounA sudden increase or rush of something; a flood, an outburst, an outpouring.

The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.2014 August 21, “A brazen heist in Paris”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...
Rush Limbaugh told millions of his radio listeners to set aside any suggestion that climate change was the culprit for the frightening spate of wildfires ravaging California and the Pacific Northwest.2020 September 15, Michael M. Grynbaum, Tiffany Hsu, “‘Nothing to do with climate change’: Conservative media and Trump align on fires”, in...

verbTo (suddenly) flood or inundate (a river or other watercourse) with water.

The river had not spated as much as I had expected, and there was only one place in my sector where lorries might have found difficulty in crossing the nala.[1938], Rajput [pseudonym; Arthur John Eardley Dawson], chapter 12, in Khyber Calling!, London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, section 3, page 181

More sentences with spate

Some connect the recent spate of flying saucer sightings with a rumored top-secret military aviation project.From the entry flying saucer
The recent spate of vandalism by pupils does not reflect well on the school.From the entry reflect on
South American gangs have also been blamed for a spate of burglaries in wealthy London suburbs.2024 March 17, David Millward, “‘Burglary tourists’ from South America target upmarket LA homes”, in The Telegraph, archived from the…. From the entry burglary tourism
There’s been a spate of stories lately about how Cruz’s rhetoric is more hifalutin than everybody else’s.2015 November 1, Hendrik Hertzberg, “That G.O.P. Debate: Two Footnotes”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2016. From the entry highfalutin
This has seen a spate of demergers and unbundlings in that sector.2004, Zimbabwe. Competition, Tariff Commission, Annual Report, page 17. From the entry unbundling
The great script swooped and spated; then broke off, baulkingly, with a scatter of dashes and curves.1934, Susan Miles [pen name; Ursula Wyllie Roberts], Blind Men Crossing a Bridge, Frederick A. Stokes Company, page 585. From the entry baulkingly
The result was that the Government of the day had a spate of applications for permits to hold art unions.1956, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 278. From the entry art union
As Flash Webtoons and animated shorts have become more and more popular, a spate of tools have cropped up to facilitate their creation.2006, Ethan Watrall, Norbert Herber, Flash MX 2004 Savvy, page 12. From the entry webtoon
Orange ones were at prime on a grassy slope and pale mauve ‘species’ crocusses, usually the first to appear, were in full spate among the slender leaf tufts.2002 November, Mary E[leanor] Gillham, “Western Outliers; Fairwater, Victoria & Thompsons’ Parks”, in A Natural History of Cardiff –…. From the entry crocusses
Quite naturally, if there are more ministers swarming the cabinet rooms and conference halls, then there will be a spate of civil servants beehiving the secretariat.1958, T. S. Bawa, Jawaharlal Nehru, Nehru's India: An Analytical Study, page 25. From the entry beehive
It may be in that dark hour at the burn-foot, before the spate caught her, she had been given grace to resist her adversary and fling herself upon God's mercy.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide. From the entry weird

Meaning of spate

noun A (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation.
noun A sudden heavy downpour of rain.
noun A sudden increase or rush of something; a flood, an outburst, an outpouring.

Full definition of spate

Questions about spate in a sentence

How do you use spate in a sentence?: Spate is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Some connect the recent spate of flying saucer sightings with a rumored top-secret military aviation project.”
What is a short sentence with spate?: “This has seen a spate of demergers and unbundlings in that sector.”
What does spate mean?: Spate means a (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation.

Adapted from Wiktionary: spate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use spate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.